Babbles and musings about travel, politics, and horses. Mostly.

The F word

Maybe it’s because my new job is in the male-dominated tech industry (heck, it’s in an industry, which is weird and slightly earthshattering for me)…

Maybe it’s because having said job has chilled, just a bit, my outrage over the popular conception of the “20-Something Slacker Generation” – my piece about which still hasn’t gotten much beyond “Arrggghhhhhh, everyone is so stupid!”, and therefore has not seen the light of the interwebs…

Maybe it’s because I’ve been reading Rebecca Traister’s fabulous new book on women in the 2008 election, Big Girls Don’t Cry, one line of which, about Hillary Clinton’s perceived vs. actual “willingness to kowtow to assholes” has been stuck in my head for days…

Whatever the reason, I’ve been thinking a lot about feminism lately. And I don’t seem to be the only one.

There’s a new version of Wonder Woman coming to televisions sometime soon. Produced by the guy who made Ally McBeal. (Oh dear).

The “enthusiasm gap” between Republican and Democratic voters in the midterms seems to be linked to a gender gap in likely voters. Some hypothesize that this is because men tend, on a whole, to be more conservative than women (and conservatives are more hyped up this election cycle. In case you haven’t noticed.). Others think its because men completely lose their minds and sense of self if they lose their jobs, while women, naturally, don’t really care about work and are totally fine being laid off. Because, what, it lets them go back to the things they really want to do, have dozens of babies and take care of their menfolk?

The Sarah Palin-created “Mama Grizzlies” are trying to claim not only feminism, but Susan B. Anthony (that’s nothing new), and smart girl-ness. (I am so offended by so much of that, but I’m going to save it for another day)

And a couple of “chick-lit” authors raised holy hell started an interesting and wide-ranging discussion about the gender divide within the elite world of “literary” novels, and the high-profile reviews of them. And so Franzenfreude was born.

Now I’ve read the other links, and actually think we might have an interesting conversation about the whole mother-daughter feminist “controversy”…..cos you know my issues with heels, but apart from that is there any substance there? Or is this Susan Faludi doing her thing again?